We had a blast in Oceania... a wonderful time. One could easily get stuck there forever... and maybe we will next time around. As of now, the world is still too big and other gorgeous corners of our planet are calling. Our next big dream destination is Alaska, which unfortunately is all the way across on the very other side of the Pacific. Well... life is a journey, not a destination.

Because of winds, currents and cyclones, which never rest in the Northern Pacific, there is really only two ways to go across. One route leads through Japan and the other through Hawaii. Both have advantages and disadvantages and we have decided to go Aloha, just because I haven't been to Hawaii and that is THE ONE island one should have been. Isn't it?

To the left you see a rough idea of our route to Hawaii. In this part of the journey we will have to deal with trade winds and currents against us. It's not perfect, but somehow we will make our way far enough into the east to be able to cross the equator around the Hawaiian longitude. We'll depend on some anomalies, namely strong low pressure systems in the south, which disturb the trade winds.

We surely will be in Kiribatis Line Islands around the turn of the year, in the "safe zone" close to the equator, when the typhoons still roam in the north and the cyclones start in the south.

In March, when the typhoons have moved further west, the road to Hawaii is safe. From there we'll head to Alaska probably late in May, when the winter storms up there have eased off.

In Alaska we will have a few month left on our visa, before we have to exit to Canada in September.

After that, our plans are still a bit vague. We do want to visit Michaela's family in L.A., but we also have this urge to meet some polar bears in the North West Passage, before they go extinct. Those two ideas do not match very well, because once down in L.A. it is almost as hard to get back up to Alaska, as it is from New Zealand.

But that's a long time down the current. We'll see more clearly when we get there.